It Passed but.....

let the SEAT go on as long as it can. Ensure its safe - brakes & shocks must be maintained. Now it has another year MOT it'd be silly to just throw it away...

Cheap cars are ten a penny.. there be another £995 car to take your fancy at some point. IMHO the fiat *could* be more trouble than its worth.. look at the bright side.. at least you know whats wrong with the SEAT.. who knows what state the fiat is in ?

I wouldn't go near an old Fiat over a Seat. :-)

When was it last serviced (Seat)? Might want an oil change hence the tappety tappets - taking longer to fill with oil perhaps.

Spray some WD40 or release oil down the top of the windows and try them after it's had a day to soak in.

Radio - two bits of bent coathanger wire in U shapes should have your stereo out in a jiffy.

Few minutes with some cutting polish would have the paint shiny again. :-)

Not sure on the water leak - any idea where it's coming from - front/back/side of engine?

Regards

Mark S.

I would agree - better the devil you know. You would need to know with certainty that a replacement would be an improvement (age and mileage don't tell the whole story about any car).

The tapping could be the tappets. Not an expensive job, but I wouldn't bother doing it to my car (also an "F")

If you did opt for a change, at least you can get a couple of hundred for your SEAT now it has an MOT. I'd advise you to buy before you sell.

Btw there are currently 50 Fiats under £500 on

- some newer than L-reg, some in your area - so there's nothing special about the one you were looking at.

Good luck whatever you decide to do.

___

Hydraulic tappets getting lazy? Either new ones (could be a shock), or just makes sure it's had a god oil change and live with it; make sure it's a decent filter on there as well

See about getting your tracking checked.

It _could_ be just water from the overflow (where you fill it up with water). Perhaps the pressure cap is getting a bit weak? Next time, try and see what is above the wet patch (in the engine bay)

If nothing else, it should do at least another 12 months. If you still want to change it, then look around then.

You know where I live? Would that be from my IP? or did you pass by and recognise the car? Best Wishes Rose

If you do nothing else to a car change the oil and filter regularly. As Doki said you can get a change done cheaply or on a car of that age you can buy relatively cheap oil (not from halfords) and a pattern filter from halfords and do it yourself. My local Country Store (was West Midlands Farmers) sells Q8 oil at a pretty good spec for about £6 per gallon and a dirt cheap 20W50 for £3

-- Malc

It's my war wound. I got it in Nam.

Cheltenham

He's stalking you ;-)

Hmmm. I've thought about this one, and can't see where you're coming from.

Surely a proper Fiat original is better than a hacked-up Spanish copy?

No,

sell cars for all parts of the country. In your newsagent it may be the Yorkshire Auto Trader or the Midland Auto Trader, on the web site it's all together. You can do a search for example for cars within 40 miles of your postcode if you want. It's worth taking a look. If there's nothing within 40 miles, there will be something within 100 miles. I used the term "your area" loosely.

Btw if you get some RadWeld (£2 from any decent car parts place) and tip it into your radiator while the engine is hot (remove the cap very slowly as there will be some pressure built up and steam inside), it will probably give a semi-permanent solution to your water leak.

___

If you go to your local scrap yard they'll fit a new door, with a working window, for maybe £30 if they've one in stock. Then the different coloured door will help me spot you!

Yeah but Fiat's are faggy cars at best. Look at the travesty the Coupe they made with the engine timing belt malarky, there's one on Ebay for a fiver coz the engine's knackered (slight exageration). At least a Seat sounds "respectable". ;-)

Anyway i'm biased as I've never had anything but VW's (8 so far) and I still don't know what made me get one in the first place...

Just thought it better to keep a car with known faults that can be fixed rather than take on a new car with unknown faults given the original poster's comments.

Mark S.

Hmmm.... it's hardly Fiat's fault the owner didn't follow the belt-change interval, is it? - If you buy an Italian performance car you have to accept the running costs.

It does? To me and old Seat will always be a hacked around copy of the Regata, Panda and 127..... even now, you get nothing but a VW with Spanish build quality ;-)

Don't talk to me about VWs..... only ever had one, and it's enough not to want one again.

I'd probably be tempted to test it after 6 months, and if it fails flog it..... you could still get away with advertising it with 6 month's ticket left..... not that I'd ever condone this sort of thing ;-)

Semi-permanent as in it'll clog all the wather channels in the block eventually leading to a blown head gasket sort of a way, then?

Lol especially with the back window sticker saying "Porshe designed engine" Rose

That's the one. I've read on here that they only every use one grade of oil - 10w-40 and 10w-30 apparently, so check it's right for your SEAT.

Your best bet is probably to see if you can get the entire assembly from another car in a scrap yard, SteveH says they're based on Fiats, they'll probably have the same window mechanism. Worth ringing the SEAT dealer, they might be cheap, particularly as it's an old car and they probably don't have much demand for spares for them.

It's the same at most garages, though if you ask them, they should tighten them with a torque wrench and get them off with the brace you get with the car, though you might have to stand on it to make it move. I got a telescopic one off a car boot, it's about 20 inches long when you extend it, and makes it a lot easier to get wheel nuts off. I wouldn't jump on a wheel brace if I were you - they tend to shift pretty quickly once they're loosened. Better to get it roughly horizontal then stand on it, that way you only drop 6 inches when it goes.

Learning. I was rather surpised when I took a wheel off one of the later SEATs and a bolt came out rather than it being a nut on a stud :). Wouldn't really want to change a wheel without a torch one one of those.

You would need to tip in quite a few bottles to do that. I cannot see the sense in replacing the radiator in an old car. Mine is about the same age and I used RadWeld recently.

Hmmm wasn't thinking there as in I thought it was a later VW one. My mistake:

Buy one of these and sell Steve H the other. ;-)

Mark S.

Heh..... added to my 'watch' list.

Good job I don't really have the space for them. I'd love a V6 Auto for lazy commutes to work.